


Splatphonium!

by Tekketsu08



Category: Splatoon, 響け! ユーフォニアム | Hibike! Euphonium (Anime)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 07:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tekketsu08/pseuds/Tekketsu08
Summary: Hibike! Euphonium characters placed in the Splatoon universe. Were you expecting something else? Yuri ahoy.





	Splatphonium!

Kumiko was dazed and confused.

 

As an Octoling, she was accustomed to living underground in dark, claustrophobic spheres for all of her life, contrasting the wide-open spaces that were the surface world. When she first escaped, seeing the promised land in all its glory shocked her senses, and that was before she stepped into the hotspot of activity known as Inkopolis Square.

 

The vibrant colors and loud noises of the big city were unlike anything she had ever seen before, with denizens of different species hanging around interacting with each other, most of them being teenage Inklings. Feeling her social anxiety starting to build up from such a large amount of beings, she slapped her cheeks with her hands, sighing out loud as she composed herself.

 

Her new roommate Natsuki, also known to a select few as Agent 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, had ditched her a while ago to go hang out with her own friends, leaving Kumiko all alone in the middle of an unfamiliar place, when she was supposed to show her around the city. Feeling lonely, she mulled about buying some fresh clothes using the money that Natsuki had given her earlier, but a hand slapped her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts.

 

“Oh, looks like you’re new here. Nice tentacles by the way.” a chirpy voice perked up. Kumiko looked in front of her and saw a female Inkling about her own age, but slightly shorter with short, dark brown tentacles hanging from her head.

 

“BWAAAH! Where did you come from?” came Kumiko’s surprised reply as she jumped backward, her combat instincts flaring up. “And who the heck are you?”

 

Based on that comment about the way her tentacles looked, did that Inkling already know that she was an Octoling, one of the enemy? Would she get arrested and thrown into prison that soon not long after fighting her way out from the Deepsea Metro? Would all her escape efforts be all for nothing in the end?

 

The worries and fears swimming around in her head were broken by the Inkling’s outstretched hand. “The name’s Hazuki. Nice to meet you!” she said with a wink and a wide smile on her face.

 

Shaking Hazuki’s hand, Kumiko managed a nervous reply “Um… nice to meet you too. My name’s Kumiko.” Deep inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. Hazuki clearly hadn’t figured out that she was an Octoling yet, from her cheerful demeanor and friendly face.

 

“Wanna make a Turf War team together? It’s gonna be lots of fun!” Hazuki continued talking, disrupting Kumiko’s inner train of thought. That girl surely was enthusiastic, not like Asuka-senpai - no, Agent 3.

 

“Wh-what? I’ve never played Turf War before!” _Well, except if you count that twisted match against Tartar to save Inkopolis,_ her inner voice reminded her “Why are you asking me about this all of a sudden? We just met!”

 

“Um… I also don’t have any experience too, so I thought that gathering others would help us learn the basics and grow together. So how about it; wanna join me?”

 

“Sure… I guess?” Kumiko remembered what Natsuki told her several days before _‘You gotta make some friends in this big city, y’know? Without them, you ain’t getting anywhere!’_ as she spotted a third Inkling approaching them.

 

This newcomer was extremely short, almost a head smaller than Kumiko. She had curly light brown, almost blond tentacles with a green bow clipped to her head. Curiously, a stray tentacle was poking out from the middle of her head, making her look like an idiot.

 

“Hi! I heard somebody mention Turf War, so I came over here to see what all of that fuss was all about. I’m Midori, nice to meet you guys!” she said as she energetically shook both Kumiko and Hazuki’s hands.

 

Startled by the way the new squid threw herself at both of them, Kumiko was at a loss for words until Hazuki spoke up “I’m Hazuki, and this awkward dork here is Kumiko. We were just thinking about putting a Turf War team together. Wanna join us?”

 

“I’ll join! Besides, I don’t have a team either, so playing as a 4-squid splatoon will be more fun than going solo.” came Midori’s enthusiastic reply.

 

“All right! Now all that’s left is to find one final member, and soon we’ll have a full team! But where do we go from here? It’s not like a new team member will drop out of the sky or something…” Hazuki wondered out loud, making Kumiko feel exasperated. _Inklings really were a clueless bunch, weren’t they?_

 

“What did you say, Kumiko?” asked a concerned Midori.

 

Alarmed that she had once again absent-mindedly spoken her thoughts out loud, Kumiko scrambled to find an excuse for her odd behavior, until a brainwave hit her.

 

“I- I was thinking that we could go observe a Turf War match to see if we could recruit anybody. Besides, we could get an idea of how Turf War works for ourselves, so we don’t look like fools when we try ourselves.”

 

“Sounds like a good idea, Kumiko!” Hazuki replied, grabbing both Kumiko and Midori’s arms, interlinking them. “Let’s go check out the notice board to see where the next match is being held!”

 

Shocked by Hazuki’s decisiveness, Kumiko let out a yelp. “Wait! I didn’t say that we should watch a match right now! Shouldn’t we regroup later once we get some basic weapons and gear?” but her cries went unanswered as Hazuki dragged her towards Deca Tower.

 

_5 minutes later, Goby Arena…_

 

            After traveling through an ink pipe at high speeds, Kumiko felt that her insides were about to turn inside out. The entire experience reminded her of her near-death experience when she was almost blended into a mushy paste in a giant blender, but Hazuki and Midori seemed unaffected by the trip there, still happily laughing and joking as they walked into the arena.

 

            Once they found some seats near the front, Kumiko searched around for some friendly faces in the crowd, but seeing as she could count the number of people she knew in Inkopolis with her fingers, she sighed out loud, stretching her arms above her head as she leaned backward when she saw a face looking down at her.

 

            Screaming out loud and flailing her eight limbs wildly around, she settled down before she properly turned around and looked dead into the eyes of one Shuichi Tsukamoto.

 

            “Geh. What are you doing here, ya squidiot?” she said flatly, remembering how he somehow managed to find his way into Octarian territory two years ago by accident, met her, and only managed to get out alive thanks to Agent 3’s intervention. It was a miracle that he hadn’t managed to get himself cooked in that time.

 

            “I could ask the same of you. Haven’t seen you for a while, Kumiko.” Shuichi tried to be as friendly as possible, but to Kumiko it just seemed off-putting and weird.

 

            “Didn’t you hear about the great Octoling migration recently? You know, us coming up to the surface and freely mingling with Inklings. Wouldn’t be surprised, considering it’s you we’re talking about here.” Kumiko snarked.

 

“I’ve seen more Octolings around here these days but never thought that you’d be among them. Now the match’s starting, so I’d better get back to my seat and watch.” With that, he departed, but Shuichi’s presence still lingered around Kumiko, annoying her greatly had if her attention not switched over to the match happening right in front of her eyes.

 

It was a bog-standard Turf War game, with four squids on each side competing with each other to spread the most ink as possible around the stage in three minutes. Despite not actually seeing a live game before, she still knew the basic rules and was starting to doze off at just how routine this match was until a single Inkling caught her attention.

 

With two chopped tentacles hanging on either side of her head and wielding a pair of Enperry Splat Dualies, the female squid was a demon on the battlefield, constantly dodge-rolling and splatting anyone in her line-of-sight methodically, all the while advancing towards her opponent’s base.

 

Kumiko was in awe of her sheer skill, and she could sense the audience’s pure excitement when she had inked enough to activate her special, the Inkjet. Taking to the skies, she managed to land some hits extremely close to their spawn point before skillfully evading enemy fire as she gracefully landed back down when her jetpack exploded.

 

Staring at that display of power, Kumiko overheard two Inklings talking to each other “Man, that Kousaka’s really something, isn’t she. What I wouldn’t give to have her on my team.”

 

Wait, _Kousaka_? As in Reina Kousaka, the Inkling that voluntarily came down to Octarian territory looking for a fight, and found one in her?

 

Kumiko looked at the dualie-wielding fighter again. Yes, it really was her, the squid that she had fought to a standstill right after Agent 3 had defeated DJ Octavio. That was one of the toughest battles that she had ever been in, even counting the sadistic challenges of the Deepsea Metro.

 

As the whistle sounded, declaring the match had ended. Kumiko could only observe as Reina’s side emerged with an overwhelming victory. Rather than energetically jumping and spinning around like the other squids, she just stood there and flicked her tentacles back, as if she didn’t care about the battle’s outcome.

 

 _She looks so elegant_ , thought Kumiko as she made she that she didn’t say that out loud.

 

“So how was that match, Kumiko? Did you feel like that you learned anything, ‘cause I sure did!” Hazuki interjected, snapping Kumiko out of her thoughts again.

 

“I- um- uh, it was great. I felt like that both sides played quite well, but that dualie girl really was the star of the field right there.” Kumiko hastily replied, wanting to get back to her thoughts of Reina’s grace as the rest of the audience was filing out of the arena.

 

“Great! I’ve got something else to do right now, so how about we swap numbers and meet up again tomorrow at the Square again for some gear and weapons shopping? Midori already agreed and I’ve got her number, so you’re next!”

 

“Well, I’m fine with that. Besides, I’ve got nothing else to do anyway.” Taking out her Octophone, Kumiko swapped numbers with Hazuki before the squidkid said a quick ‘bye!’ as she ran off, leaving Kumiko alone in the arena once again.

 

Walking out, she felt a soft breeze blow some sakura petals her way. Cupping her hands together, she collected them before blowing them back out, creating a torrent of pink around her.

 

“Hello there, Ms. Oumae.” came a cool, collected voice from behind her.

 

Turning around to look, Kumiko couldn’t believe who was standing there.

 

It was Reina Kousaka, the prodigy herself.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a random idea that I had floating around in my head. Kumiko's hair does look like an octopus, doesn't it?


End file.
